Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

The Monarch Kickstarter finishes Next Week!

Monarch: The Lost Adventures is a new comics anthology of stories set in the universe of the Monarch: Legacy of Monsters TV series, the world of the modern Godzilla/Kong films. Drew Zucker and Brad Simpson are my partners in art and colour art for the strip ‘The U.S.S. Lawton and the Ion Dragon’, and followers of the show may now have worked out what this is going to be. You can read all about it, and sign up for a Kickstarter with some wonderful extras, here. (The Kickstarter finishes on May 15th!)

Jill Mansell at Fairford Festival

On Saturday, June 7th at 2pm, as part of Fairford Festival in Gloucestershire, I’ll be interviewing bestselling romance author Jill Mansell about her career. (I’ll also be running the Festival Quiz on the Sunday night and doing a couple more bits and pieces too.) You can find out more info and buy tickets here.

Ace Jacket

I’ve contributed a short story to this anthology in aid of autism charities, edited by Sophie Aldred and Shawn J. Levy. It’s out on June 17th. You can read all about it and pre-order a copy here.

‘The Longest War’

That’s the title of the issue of Commando I’ve written, which is tentatively due to be released in August. The artist is the great Steve Yeowell, and it’s amazing work. I’m delighted to have contributed to this very exacting classic format. More news nearer the time!

Gnomes of Lychford and The Lychford Collection

On 9th September, Tor.com Publishing is releasing the sixth book in my Lychford series of rural fantasy novellas, Gnomes of Lychford. It’s a re-editing of the serial I ran on this newsletter, and I’ve taken the opportunity to sort out a couple of little plot problems. I think it’s my best Lychford book, and, weirdly, it’s a great jumping-on point, because everything about the series is explained at the start. You can read all about it here.

And you can now pre-order!

“An unlikely group of supernatural creatures terrorizes the sleepy village of Lychford. Okay, they're gnomes. That's not a spoiler: you worked it out it from the title. When an ancient prophecy clashes with an unfortunate modern design aesthetic, the people of Lychford must band together to put out fires (both literal and metaphorical) to save their town before the king of the Gnomes (King Greg, and it's dangerous to laugh at a gnome) calls in the terms of an old promise. Trouble is: no one knows what the promise is, nor how to fulfil it. It's going to be a long night.”

And also up for pre-order, and out on the same day is The Lychford Collection, which contains my first three Lychford novellas. (Cover design for both by FORT.)

Who Killed Nessie Bookstore Edition and London Signing! (With that John Freeman article! And news of the Zoop edition!)

On 18th September, Avery Hill will be releasing a bookstore edition of Who Killed Nessie?, the graphic novel by myself and the great Rachael Smith.

You can pre-order it already from Amazon UK and Amazon US. And you can order it from all good bookstores and comic shops.

“A cosy comedy murder mystery… with a monstrous twist! Lyndsay Grockle has just started her new job at an isolated hotel. She’s trying to get over heartbreak. She’s amazed to be left in sole charge just before a big convention. When the terrifying guests start to arrive, she realises why: this is a gathering of the fantastic beasts of myth and legend! The attendees ask her to stay in her room and let them be. But when the Loch Ness Monster is found dead, there’s nobody else they trust to solve the murder. She may not entirely believe in them… but they believe in her! Lyndsay is going to have to dig deep into her own fears and vulnerabilities to discover… WHO KILLED NESSIE?”

Those of you who backed the graphic novel on Zoop, don’t worry, you’ll be getting a unique edition with a different cover. (And you’ll be getting it first, in June or July, because the book is now finished and off to the printer!)

And on Saturday, 20th September, from 1pm-2pm, Rachael and I will be signing the book (copies of which will be on sale) at Waterstones London-Piccadilly!

You can get the details of that free-to-attend event here.

And here’s John Freeman at Down the Tubes talking about the whole project, with preview pages!

The Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s

On November 13th, I’ve got a book coming out from Bloomsbury that’s part of a new range of popular studies of Marvel Comics! The Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s is fully illustrated with panels from the comics, and is my journey through how Marvel’s main super team navigated that difficult decade. You can read the announcement here at AP News. This is very much a labour of love for me, a book I’ve wanted to find a way to write for the longest time.

And you can now pre-order it from the publisher (and from all good booksellers)!

Thought Bubble

Our application has been accepted, so I’m pleased to say that Lizbeth Myles and I will once more be tabling at the wonderful Thought Bubble comic convention in Harrogate on November 15th and 16th.

Of Intrigue and Espionage

I have a story in this just-announced forthcoming volume from Stars and Sabers publishing, which is due out in October 2026. I’m in good company, as you can see from the full announcement here.

Telefantasy Time Jump

The new podcast from me and Lizbeth Myles covers the history of SFF on TV, from 1953 onward, with our regular episodes (on the 14th of every month) covering a show released that year in the UK, and the Patron Bonus episodes (on the 28th) covering a show from the rest of the world. The shows for May (covering 1957) will be The Sky at Night and the Dutch SF show Morgen Gebeurt Het, plus a bit about Colonel Bleep. The main episode is available free wherever you get your podcasts. To get the bonus episode, you need to follow us on Patreon at £3/$3 or above. (And you get access to seven years of Hammer House of Podcast bonus episodes!) You can find all the info here.

My Ko-fi and eBay Stores

Here’s my Ko-fi store, where you can buy my books and comics, signed and personalised, for shipping worldwide. And here’s my ebay store, full of Bronze Age Marvel comics at bargain prices.

My Linktree

You can now find all my social media links, my website/blog and links to where you can buy my books, in one place here, thanks to Linktree!

The Work of Friends

It was a great pleasure to read two new comics first issues from my friend the writer David Pepose, Captain Planet and Speed Racer, both of which manage to square the circle of nostalgic appeal and modern relevance. They’re both in your comic stores now, Speed with a #0 for Free Comic Book Day and #1 for the Captain, and I highly recommend you check them out. And go see David at his very cool website.

Goats Flying Press, run by my old friend Sebastian Girner, is in the run-up for a new Kickstarter, for Lake Yellowwood Slaughter, Alejandro Arbona and Gavin Guidry's "official comic book adaptation" of a 1983 cult horror classic that never existed! You can sign up here to be notified when the campaign starts.

My friend the writer Colleen Douglas (with Fabrice Sapolsky and illustrator Lissa) has had a successful Kickstarter campaign (you can still sign up) for her light novel Shakespeare’s Vampires, which is due to launch at the MCM Comic Con in London later this month! “Romeo & Juliet have been turned into Vampires 400+ years ago and at war ever since. Can anybody stop the bloodshed?”

And my friend the writer Meghan Fitzmartin has her full cast audio adaptation of the All-Star Superman comic now up for pre-order!

My Week

As we speak, I’m at 98,000 words on the fantasy novel, aiming to hit 100k (and the climax) today. Then there will be slightly too many endings, because I know how I work. Apart from writing an exciting comic book thing with a partner, that’s it for my work this week.

On Saturday, I popped into the wonderful Proud Lion comic shop in Cheltenham for Free Comic Book Day. They have the same cosplayer outside every year, varying his costume each time, and this time round he was entertaining the line as Deadpool. Great to see so many children turning out for the decent array of all-ages titles. Then I popped over to a garden party held by the wonderful Geoff Ryman, who held it to mark departing the cottage where he and his partner lived for so many years. It was great to catch up on some friends from the world of SF, and to meet an autistic man in his thirties, whose career focus gave me a lot of hope for Thomas’ future.

Monday was Caroline and I taking Thomas to Bristol to visit the Lego Shop, where he very dutifully picked out a set in the price range we’d specified (which he later customised in a wonderful way, the Lego Friends cafe (not the TV show) becoming a branch of Cafe Nero!) and then enjoyed a pizza lunch. He was delightful throughout, and it was good to be reminded of what a good kid he is, despite the occasional meltdown.

UK politics being what it is has caused me to be very downcast this week, so I did what I always do in those cases, got out and saw people and reminded myself of the goodness of human beings, at the cricket club, a Festival meeting and down the Railway Inn. This unfortunately resulted in, unusually for me, a midweek hangover. But it was the search for human decency that caused it, your honour. I blame Nigel Farage. Just in general.

To Be Continued

Thunderbolts was really good, BTW. Still waiting on so many things. Soon, my dears, soon!

I hope to see all of you again next week!